Donor Kim Plummer –Kidney Donation in the African American Community

Transcript

Dr. Rodgers: What kind of difference do kidney donors make? Hi, I’m Dr. Griffin Rodgers bringing you Healthy Moments from the NIH. I'm the Director of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases.

The recipient of a donated kidney, Kimberly, told us what a tremendous gift that is. But donation rates are still low in our community.

Ms. Plummer: There are a lot of African Americans that are not on the donor list. And the reason I say that is I went to a seminar and out of that group they asked how many people in the audience how many of us was an actual organ donor, and there might have been 3 of us maybe out of 50.

Dr. Rodgers: Kidney transplants seem to be more successful when matched between members of the same ethnic group. Since African Americans suffer kidney failure more than the general population, it's very important that we consider donation.